Ten Short Books to Finish Your 2016 Reading Challenge

I am proud to say that in 2016 I completed my Goodreads reading challenge without breaking a sweat. However, this is not the norm. This post is for all those people out there who are a few books short and are looking for a quick read to boost their numbers and view those sought after words ‘Congrats! You have read 100% of your reading goal’.

Below is a list of 10 books (well, there’s 10 entries, there’s actually probably closer to 20 options in the list below) that are less than 250 pages and can see you well on your way to the Hall of Reading Legends.

If you’re here, I imagine you’ve got a lot of reading to do, so I’ll try and keep this short and sweet.

This book was written as three novellas, meaning you can effectively add 3 books to your total within the length of a normal novel. This is a classic YA romance, with a little bit of a magic/supernatural element in places, but still ultimately a realistic story – and it has amnesia… intrigued?

Really easy to get through as it’s written in a sort of list format. Basically just a collection of different things that have been overheard in bookshops – they are very entertaining and (more importantly) very short.

Throwing in a cheeky classic for you. This is one of my favourite classics ever, the books is a large extended metaphor discussing communism, written in the setting of a farm yard – I really don’t know how else to explain it.

A quick YA dystopian, but I’d say it’s still accessible to an older audience. If you have already picked this one up, maybe try one of the sequels, I’ve read both Gathering Blue and Messenger and they’re both just okay, but worth it for their tiny length at this stage!

YA contemporary romance again. Takes place after our protagonist is involved in a car accident and documents her relationship and her internal battle with herself to decide whether life is still worth living.

Just Christmassy, fluffy, YA. (Note: this is a sequel, I haven’t read the first one so I don’t want to recommend something I haven’t read, but maybe it would be worth checking out first – it’s 260 pages)

Another YA dystopian, this time set in a futuristic India. In this world, there are 5 men to every one girl and so they are auctioned off to the highest bidder as a future bride. Weird writing, tries a little too hard to be poetic, but a really really fast read, especially as many of the pages are written in poetry and so have a lot of white space!

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If none of these options appeal to you, trying looking for a companion novel for your favourite series (I’ll leave links for those who are interested in The Selection, Divergent and Red Queen).

Hopefully there’ll be something on this list that can help you out, I remember the struggle in the last final weeks to find something snappy, but still entertaining, to make up the numbers.

Two of the ‘novellas’ I read this week were less then 10 pages. Like they should not have even had goodreads pages. However, reading them cleared up my Goodreads to read list, which was a semi-goal of mine this year and also counted towards my challenge, which I am happy about.

I was exactly the same – after reading Gathering Blue I stayed away from the series altogether, then eventually I read the Messenger and my faith was restored. I have such mixed feelings about reading the final one in case I leave the series on a bad note.
I think I did review You Will Not Have My Hate in November time if you want to check it out!

I enjoyed The Giver, was a little meh about Gathering Blue, cried over the Messenger (but later didn’t enjoy it as much in re-reads), have not read part four yet. The first book on your list sounds intriguing, have you reviewed it?